RPO – What a joke?

Why bother with Recruitment Process Outsourcing? Because it could be your best advert.

“My margins are being squeezed so much it’s not worth it”. Yes, that may be true, but before we take on this hot potato, let’s look from the client’s point of view...

Let’s imagine you’re the HR Director for a 500 employee business. Your staff turnover is running at 15% pa, your business is expanding at 20% pa and you’re dealing with 25 agencies on the preferred suppliers list. The maths is scary.

175 placements to fill a year (200 with the ‘no-shows)

2000 interviews?

10,000 CV’s?

30,000 calls and emails?

Now lets imagine you’ve just been told to slash the agency spend by 50%. What are your options?

Learn how to recruit? Recruit a recruitment team? Or outsource the task to one central supplier who guarantees to cut your spend and give you back your old job - the one you applied for. As much as I’m on the side of the Recruiter, I can honestly see the appeal. As an ex-recruiter I totally understand the frustrations surrounding RPO, but the market is changing and those recruiters doing best, are those quickest to adapt.

If nothing else, consider this - 10% of something is better than 25% of nothing. If you don’t agree simply fill the other 50 vacancies your working - but don’t think they’re exclusively yours to fill. Your clients may have no more loyalty to you than candidates you’re trying to place.

Look at it from a different angle. If the client you are now ultimately recruiting for is potentially one that you could not have previously reached, don’t focus on the reduced fee but consider what the case study on your website and linkedin recommendation is actually worth to you and your business.